Reading Between the Lines
by Erin Salvatore
Summary: AU. Catherine Chandler is a good girl who is verbally abused by her mother and stepfather, as well as blamed for her father's death. Vincent Keller is a bad boy with a quick temper and a heart of gold. She falls in love with him as they spend time together, but she isn't sure he feels the same about her that she does about him. Requested by FeralGen3.
1. Chapter 1

**Reading Between the Lines**

 **by Erin Salvatore**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Beauty and the Beast. I'm just borrowing. Only the story is mine.**

 _ **Note: This story comes to me as a request by FeralGen3. It is an AU Vincat story taking place in high school and the plot goes like this: Catherine Chandler is a good girl who is verbally abused by her mother and stepfather. Vincent Keller is the bad boy with a heart of gold. Catherine falls in love with him as they spend time together but is afraid to tell him because she isn't sure he loves her.**_

 _ **HERE WE GO!**_

 **CHAPTER 1**

 _Fenton High School, 2001_

 **C** atherine Chandler walked into school with her head down. She wanted to keep the others from seeing she had been crying. She had endured yet another round of verbal abuse from her mother and stepfather. Although she was grateful Heather stood up for her, it didn't change the fact she had been blamed constantly for her father's death.

 _I don't get why they keep blaming me,_ she thought. _I had nothing to do with Dad's death and yet they tell me it was my fault. Thank God I've got two more years with their bullshit and then I'll be off to Princeton. It's one of the only things that keep me going besides the friends I have here._

"Hey, Cat."

Catherine was brought back to reality somewhat by the voice belonging to her best friend, Tess Vargas, whom she had known since middle school. Catherine looked at the other girl and gave her a smile, even if she was still hurting on the inside from her emotional assault.

"Hey, Tess."

Tess saw the tear stains on her friend's face. "You know, you really should stand up for yourself. I don't like what I see when you come to school every day."

"It's not like I don't try," said Catherine. "I tell Mom that Dad's death isn't my fault and yet, she still says I'm the reason her husband is in the ground, among other things I won't repeat." She sighed. "The best consolation is Heather doesn't join in the bullshit they give me. She doesn't blame me for what happened to Dad and I love her to pieces for it."

"I agree with her," said Tess. "You are innocent in the whole thing." She placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Cat, I'm worried about you, and so are Alex and Evan. As I said, you should stand up for yourself."

 _Elsewhere…_

Vincent Keller tapped his foot impatiently as he sat in the principal's office. He was new to Fenton High, having just enrolled last week. As usual, the principal was running behind and it wasn't helping his nerves any. He was tempted to go over to the desk and demand to know what the hold-up was, but losing his temper would only make things worse instead of better.

He was still waiting when the door to the office opened and a stocky kid with glasses walked in, his clothes all disheveled. Vincent got up from his chair, his concern overtaking his impatience, and approached the kid.

"What happened to you?"

"I'll tell you what happened to me," he said. "The assholes on the football team jumped me. My laptop was destroyed and my books and papers were thrown all over the place."

"What?" said Vincent. "But, why would they attack you like that?"

"I'm a nerd," said the kid. "And if you've watched 80s movies like I have, you'd know that guys like them target guys like me. I'm fair game to them." He sighed. "Look, let me start over. I'm JT Forbes."

"Nice to meet you, JT, I'm Vincent Keller. I was just enrolled and I'm waiting to see the principal," said Vincent. "As you can see, I'm more than a little impatient. Are things around here always like this?"

"Not usually," said JT. "The office sometimes doesn't have as many delays as it's experiencing at the moment." He cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses. "Since it seems like I'm not going anywhere any time soon, maybe I can stick around and wait with you."

Vincent raised an eyebrow. "Are you offering to wait with me because you really want to or are you offering because you don't want to leave the office because of those nerd-hating jocks that broke your laptop?"

JT sighed. "Both, I guess. Plus, I could really use a bodyguard." He nodded pointedly at the scar on Vincent's cheek. "You look like you can definitely kick some ass, judging from the scar on your face. How'd you get it, by the way?"

"It's a souvenir from my last school," said Vincent. "This kid said something about my mom to my face and, to defend her honor, I got into a fight with him, during which he grabbed a knife and cut me with it."

"Who won?"

"Nobody, because the principal broke it up after my face got cut," said Vincent. "About a week later, I was thrown out of school because they accused me of being an instigator when it was really the other guy who started it."

"It was still pretty badass that you defended your mom's honor, man," said JT. "I mean, what gave him the right to say those things about her to your face? No son wants to hear his mom being bad-mouthed to his face. I know I wouldn't."

Vincent smiled slightly at JT's praise. Truth be told, he was actually grateful for his company even though they just met. He didn't have many friends at the schools he attended before he came to Fenton and it was good to know he had at least one new friend here.

"So you say you need a bodyguard?"

JT sighed again. "Oh God, yes. As I said, I'm fair game to those jocks. As soon as they see me, they go right for me like pit bulls to a piece of meat. The laptop they destroyed? It was my third laptop in two months, and I'd hate to ask my parents to get me another one because we're not exactly the British Royal Family."

"You don't have to ask them," said Vincent. "I can buy you a new laptop if you want."

"Dude, you really don't have to do that," said JT. "You barely know me."

"I want to," said Vincent. "JT, you're the first new friend I've made here and I want to help you in any way I can. I'll be your bodyguard and I'll replace whatever those assholes broke or stole from you."

JT smiled. "Thanks, Vincent. You're a great guy. And I'm honored to be your first new friend at Fenton High School."

 _ **Note: Thus begins the new AU. I was originally going to introduce Vincent in Chapter 2, but I decided to bring him in here, as well as have him and JT meet. Oh, and he and Tess are going to be the secondary couple. Anyway, stay tuned.**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Beauty and the Beast. I'm just borrowing. Only the story belongs to me.**

 _ **Note: Previously, in "Reading Between the Lines," Tess tells Catherine she is concerned about her. Meanwhile, Vincent meets JT in the principal's office and offers to become his bodyguard.**_

 _ **Hey, guys! I know I haven't touched this story in a while (the last time being November 13, the day it was posted), but inspiration wasn't easy to come by and I wanted to be sure the idea I had sounded as good written out as it did in my head. I think I can update now.**_

 _Later that Day…_

 **F** or the most part, Vincent was able to have the same classes as JT, which made his job as his bodyguard easy and the jocks who had been harassing his new friend hadn't tried anything. Although this was a good thing, Vincent had the feeling they were only giving them a false sense of security, and that they were planning something.

Lunch time came and the two boys walked into the cafeteria, looking to see if there were any tables available. They found one in the front of the room, across from the vending machine. They were just getting seated when they were approached by a girl dressed in black.

"Oh my God, JT, are you okay? I heard about what those idiots did to you."

"I'm fine, Tori," he said. "A little shaken, but I think I'll live." He saw that Vincent was looking at them curiously. "Oh, Tori Windsor, this is my new friend and bodyguard, Vincent Keller. He's new here. Vincent, this is my ex-girlfriend, Tori."

The girl, named Tori, smiled at Vincent. "Hi."

Vincent nodded. "Hi. So, you once dated my friend here?"

"Yeah, but my dad was a super ass about it," said Tori. "He thought he wasn't good enough for me. We tried to keep it together, but then we decided it wasn't worth the bullshit from my dad, so we broke up. We're still friends, though."

"That's good," said Vincent. "At least I'm not the only friend JT has."

Tori nodded. "I've got a new boyfriend now. His name is Liam Cullen and he's a senior. Dad doesn't approve, but I don't give a shit. I can't be Daddy's Little Girl forever, you know."

Vincent nodded again and excused himself to go get some food because he had some money. While he was on his way to the lunch line, he saw a girl slip on something that had spilled on the floor. Quickly, he caught her before she fell, ignoring the looks from the other people. He wondered if the stuff on the floor was dropped by accident or on purpose. Either way, at least he was able to prevent another accident from happening.

"Are you okay?"

The girl he saved looked at him and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. I guess I wasn't watching where I was going." She cleared her throat and straightened herself out. "Thank you for the save."

"You're welcome," said Vincent. "By the way, I'm Vincent Keller. I'm new here."

"Catherine Chandler."

"It was a privilege to meet you, Catherine," said Vincent. "Can I buy you lunch? It's the least I can do after making sure you weren't hurt."

Catherine shook her head. "No, I actually brought lunch from home. The reason I was up here was because I forgot to bring napkins and wanted to get some from the counter." She cleared her throat. "Would you like to sit with me and my friends?"

"I'd like to, but I already have a table," said Vincent. "Maybe another time?"

"Okay," said Catherine. "Well, it was nice to meet you, Vincent, and thank you for helping me. Not many people around here would go out of their way to help those who are in need."

She walked back to where she was sitting and Vincent watched her as she left. This was turning out to be a rather interesting day for him. First, he had offered to be JT's bodyguard and now he was saving girls like Catherine from landing on the floor due to a slip and fall. He sighed and went to buy his lunch, after which he returned to his table, where he noticed JT and Tori looking at him.

"What?"

"Dude, that was awesome," said JT. "Tori and I saw how you swooped in and prevented that girl from falling."

"And one of the popular girls at that," said Tori.

"Catherine Chandler is one of the popular girls?" said Vincent. "But, she didn't give off a 'popular girl' vibe as I was talking to her. She seemed to be normal. I may not know her very well because we just met, but..."

"Oh, she's popular all right," said Tori. "In fact, JT has a crush on her friend, Tess Vargas."

JT gave his ex a surprised look. "Tori!"

"What? It's true, isn't it?" said Tori. "I've seen the way you look at her."

"But, I can never hope to be with a girl like Tess," said JT. "I'm a nerd. She'd never go for a guy like me. She's a goddess and I'm a lowly peasant."

"Oh, come on," said Vincent. "You're not giving yourself enough credit, man."

"I'm serious," said JT. "I stand as much of a chance with Tess as you do with Catherine. I get you want me to feel better, and I appreciate it, but I doubt it'll change the fact that I'm going to spend the rest of my life alone."

Vincent shook his head, not sure why his friend was feeling this way about himself. He wasn't about to let this go, that was for certain. He made a silent promise that he'd help JT get up the courage to ask Tess out. If he could get a girl like Tori Windsor to go out with him, how hard could getting Tess Vargas to go out with him? For that matter, how _did_ JT ask Tori out? He looked at Tori.

"Tori, can I ask you something?"

"Sure," she said. "What is it?"

"How did JT get you to go out with him?"

"To be honest, I don't know," said Tori. "One day, he came up to me and asked me if I wanted to see a movie with him. We're in the AV Club together, so we saw each other every day. Anyway, we dated for a year before we broke up. I know I'm telling you this after the fact, but..."

"No, it's okay, I was just curious," said Vincent. "Though, I am going to need your help. You've known JT longer than I have, so if I'm going to help him with his Tess situation, I'll need an expert."

"No problem," said Tori. "I may not be his girlfriend anymore, but I'd be happy to help you out as a friend."

 _ **Note: Yeah, this chapter was kicking my ass. Thankfully, I got it done. Just hope it's as good written out as it was in my head. Stay tuned.**_

 _ **ENJOY THE UPDATE!**_


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